Let me start off by saying that last week was a blast… This
was my first visit to CES and after what I have seen and experience I’m hoping
it won’t be the last. This week I have many blogs lined up from CES 2014 and things I wanted to blog
before I left to Las Vegas. So let’s start off by covering the highlights of my
CES trip.
Day One
Note 12.2
I headed to the Samsung booth that was enormous and housed a
lot of gadget, techs, appliances, and prototypes.
The first set of Samsung products
I had to investigate were the Tab Pro and Note Pro line of tablets.
The first
one that greeted me was the Note Pro 12.2 which is quite frankly very hard to
miss given the size. My first impressions were somewhat mixed because I couldn’t
fathom why an average Joe would want a tablet that big. But after speaking with
Jaime Beitia who is Product Manager for PC’s Samsung Electronic Latin America I
found out that the note pro 12.2 is the first move to phase out enter level
laptops on the market right now. Looking back at it now it all makes sense, and
very smart move on Samsung’s part. The Note Pro 12.2 will come in two models which
is the true Octa-Core( Exynos 5 Octa) or Snapdragon 800 chipset clocked at 2.3
GHz with both having 3GB of RAM. The UI has also been redone the new Samsung
Magazine UX. This UI is capable of displaying segments of information, and News
on the home. The Note 12.2 is light weight and has a very a lovely display.
As soon as persons hear Samsung and Tab beside each other
they immediately assume that it’s an Android device you’re talking about. But this
week we had the pleasure of reviewing the Samsung ATIV Tab 5 which is an 11
inch tablet that has Windows 8 as its operating system. Take that assumption!
Let’s us further evaluate the marvel.
Hardware and
Design 9 out of 10
At first glance a person can mistakenly take this tablet
to be the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, because of their similar design, but that’s
where the similarities stop. The ports
and internal components are far different from what you would find on a Note
10.1. Take a look below on some of the hardware that makes the Tab 5 tick.
- Operating System: Windows 8 (32-bit)
- Processor: Intel® Atom™ Processor Z2760 (1.8 GHz)
- Display: LCD 11.6" inch Resolution - 1366 x 768 Touch Screen
- System RAM: 2GB LPDDR2 (800MHz)
- Storage Capacity: 64GB
- Web Cam: 2.0 MP HD (Front) 8.0 MP HD (Rear)
- Wireless LAN: 802.11 a/b/g/n
- Bluetooth 4.0
- Micro HDMI Port
- USB 2.0 Port
- Multi Card Slot
- Gigabit Wired Ethernet LAN (Available with docking station)
Impressive specification sheet indeed; the only thing left
out is a DVD burner, and this would be a full on Windows 8 laptop.
UI (User
Interface) 9 out 10
This tablet brings the familiarity of Windows desktops into
the palm of your hands with little or no compromise. The only hard adjustment a
user has to undertake is the new live tile feature that’s used by Windows 8.
Apart from that aspect users will be happy to know that there are a lot of
things Windows 8 have in common with Windows 7 and familiarity is a plus in
most people book.
Operating System
(OS) 9 out of 10
It’s a full functioning Windows 8 OS which means that all
your favorite applications that you grow to love on your desktop PC are able to
be installed on this device with no hassle. That’s one aspect Windows tablets
will always have over Android and iOS devices.
Final Thoughts
After a week with the Tab 5 I can see how a person wanting a
lighter alternative to a laptop could make an easy transition to a windows
tablet, especially one that has all the features of this tablet. Wait… I just
added an external DVD burner to the tablet and it works!!! Sweeeeet!!! The Samsung ATIV Tab 5 is just an
external DVD burner purchase away from being a solid laptop alternative. The
products mentioned in this article were provided courtesy of Royale Computers and Accessories
telephone#: 906-1067, 906-1068, and
754-5048.
After several months, couple updates and a
few heating issues... The Samsung Galaxy S4 (S4) I9400 has undergo some
major changes since its public release in May of this year. This blog post is
to highlight these changes whether good or bad and see if there is any more
room for improvement for the S4.
Memory Usage
Memory usage was one of the sore points for
the S4 when I got it at launch. I remember my friend laughing at me with he's
Nexus 4 saying its not a memory hog like my phone... Ha Ha, who's laughing now
Kirk! To be honest, the memory usage was horrible at first. Just look at the
screen shot below.
The above image is a screen shot of my S4 and this was the memory usage for the device at start up. The results of numerous updates have brought down the memory usage from what you are seeing above to what you see below.
Yes, Samsung did some sort of magic and brought the memory usage at start-up down by half. This has significantly helped me in multitasking.
Performance
The speed and fluidity of the phone has increased as well. It’s immediately noticeable as you boot up the device after the last update. No more random glitch scrolling.
Battery Life
The downside is... battery life. I'm not getting the amount of hours I use to out of my phone. At least it’s not as bad as my friend's Nexus 4. :)... I use to get two days without Digicel 4G on and 12 hours with it on. These days I'm getting 1 and 1/4 without 4G and 10 hours or less with 4G on.
Display
The display has got a slight upgrade too. Texts seem to be sharper and icons are pronounced on the screen. Also, it seems like some color correction has been done in the last update and this is evident as soon as you enter the gallery app and see that pics are less color saturated and have more life like color representation. There is also a new reading mode option added to the drop down menu to help users that read a lot on their devices and lessen eye fatigue.
New Features
New features like Knox and the ability to pair with galaxy gear has been added. I still haven't gotten my hands on the galaxy gear or the Note 3 for a full spot on review, but I still remain hopeful.
Final Thoughts
In my opinion, the S4 has a lot of life still left in it and with more updates and fine tuning it can become a stable device that will be around for years to come. Look out for my next blog post that will be about the Wireless Bluetooth Beats By Dr. Dre headset.... I think its an original, not too sure. Until next time... Peace.
I have been told by someone yesterday that Samsung should have a retail store in Jamaica due to the popularity of their phones in our region. I was shocked to know that there are still some persons living and breathing in Jamaica that haven't seen the most well published Samsung Experience store. So this is for all those persons that missed the 1st 2nd and 3rd publications that promoted the store.
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On September 26, 2013 I had chance of being at the
launch of the new Samsung Experience Store in Tropical Plaza. The event was
well attended by the media and Samsung tech lovers alike. The store was stacked
to the ceiling with all the new Samsung devices to demo and purchase. They also
officially launched the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Gear which are the two new
flagship devices from Samsung. After seeing the range of devices available at
launch it would be a safe assumption that the Samsung Experience Store has all
gadgets a tech lover would want.
